"It was really important to us for my mom to have this gift this year," LeeAnne Israelson said.

She said her mother never asks for anything, but this year, a Kindle Fire was on her list.

"We thought, here's something we know she wants. We were just really looking forward to seeing the excitement that she had when she got it," Israelson said.

But Israelson said the gift, shipped via UPS from her sister last Tuesday, didn't get in until this past Monday. By then, she said, her mom was already on her way back home to Texas.

"When they say guaranteed two-day air we expected it to be, so I don't know if they weren't prepared. Christmas comes on the same day every year. I thought they would have been prepared for that, especially with people doing a lot of online shopping," Israelson said.

People in California, Georgia, Kansas and Virginia, among other states, didn't receive gifts in time for Christmas. UPS blamed the delays on bad weather and high volume.

"They should have known that they were going to have a lot of packages to deliver, and if there's any way that they can make it up to people, they should," Israelson said.

She said she'll have to ship the Kindle to her mom's home in Texas.

"We're going to FaceTime. She's learned how to do that," Israelson said.

The shipping giant posted the following statement on their website:

"UPS understands the importance of your holiday shipments. UPS is experiencing heavy holiday volume and making every effort to get packages to their destination; however, the volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity of our network immediately preceding Christmas, so some shipments were delayed. UPS is not making pickups or deliveries on Christmas Day and will resume normally scheduled service on December 26."

A spokeswoman for UPS said she didn't know if customers would receive refunds.